Artistic Semiotics and Cultural Semiotics:Towards a Systematic Approach

Based on a thorough comparison between the Tartu School of Artistic Semiotics with J. M. Lotman as its leader and the Moscow School of Cultural Semiotics with B. A. Uspenskij as its leader, the present article gives a comparative study of Tartu-Moscow semiotic theories and the western structuralistic semiotics, summarizes Tartu-Moscow semiotics school’s achievements in poetics and cultural investigations, and outlines its innovations in research approaches as well.